Go to a nearby cave

Despite the safety of strip mining, you figure that it would take forever at your size, and going to a cave might be a better choice for faster iron. So you head out, the mobs don't pay you much mind as you luckily find that there is cave very close to spawn, you head in, and start looking for resources.

You find more than enough coal at the entrance of the cave, so all that's left to find is some Iron. As you get further from the entrance, you find that it gets harder and harder to see, you would love to craft some torches with the coal you found, but you fear that it may take up too many resources to do so.